Planarians possess a remarkable ability to regenerate missing body parts. This ability depends on robust pattern formation, which allows animals to re-establish tissue identities and body axes after injury. It is known that the Wnt and FGFR-like (FGFRL) pathways regulate regeneration of the planarian anteroposterior (AP) axis following injury or wounding. Now, Christian Petersen and colleagues uncover a role for Src signalling in planarian AP axis patterning. Using an RNAi screen, the authors first show that src-1 suppresses both head and trunk identity in planaria; its inhibition in regenerating animals results in the expansion of both head and trunk domains, and the formation of posterior ectopic eyes. Following on from this, they report that src-1 is broadly expressed in both muscle and non-muscle cells, and that it regulates the expression of AP patterning factors. Using double RNAi knockdowns, the researchers further report that scr-1 acts independently of Wnt and FGFRL factors, suggesting that it likely acts in parallel to these signals. Finally, they show that src-1 inhibition enhances the phenotypes caused by disruptions to known AP patterning regulators. Overall, these findings identify src-1 as a novel factor that regulates positional information and robust pattern formation in regenerating planarians.
Src signalling worms its way into patterning
Src signalling worms its way into patterning. Development 1 April 2022; 149 (7): e149_e0701. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.